Almost £1m spent mothballing Coventry leisure centre

Councillor Jim O'Boyle said the Covid-19 pandemic was to blame for finding a new use for the site

Nearly £1m has been spent mothballing a disused leisure centre site since it closed three years ago.

Coventry City Council has spent a total of £912,955 on the old Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre buildings, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed.

Both the contractor and council blamed the Covid-19 pandemic for delaying finding a new use for the site.

Labour councillor Jim O'Boyle, said the building has had to be maintained within accordance of its listed status.

"It wasn't helped by the fact that when we finally closed the building we then had the pandemic.

"But we're on course to make an announcement very soon about what the future use of this great building will be," he added.

The adjoining building was built in 1970 and made to look like an elephant

The Grade II former swimming pool opened in the 1960s and was known locally as "Cov baths".

The adjoining leisure centre, which was built in the 1970s and was designed to look like an elephant, failed to get listed status in 2015.

Both were closed due to spiralling maintenance and repair costs.

Conservative councillor Ryan Simpson made the request to find out about the mothballing costs.

It showed the cost for utilities from February 2020 to January 2023 was £353,875. In the same period £463,826 was spent on security and £95,254 on maintenance.

Conservative councillor Ryan Simpson put in the request to find out about the mothballing costs

He said: "We do have to keep it safe, we don't want a big vacant site in the city centre that becomes a magnet for anti-social behaviour.

"But it's been three years. We haven't seen any ideas, we haven't seen a vision, we haven't been talking to people about this. We need to grasp the urgency of this matter."

The contractor, Richard Mees, from Ranier Developments, said his organisation was in serious talks with a potential occupier.

"We carried out a full marketing exercise that lasted approximately 12 months and we're now in detailed discussions with a partner to use the existing buildings.

"The type of use they want to bring to the buildings are repurposing the main 50-metre pool so it's a flexible, creative working space and, also, the re-use of the elephant building for a multi-use leisure arena that can also contribute to the night-time economy."

Contractor Richard Mees said prior to the planning permission, there was extensive engagement with the local community

Mr Mees also suggested the site of the site of the former smaller junior swimming pool, next to the elephant building, could be transformed into student accommodation and that they hoped to make a planning application for the whole site towards the end of the year.

He added: "Prior to making a planning application there will be extensive engagement with the local community and key stakeholders.

"Once the planning application is submitted, we'd be hoping, next year, to start seeing work on site."